Roaring Camp Railroad

Roaring Camp Railroad

Location map

A bit north and east of Santa Cruz is the small town of Felton. There you'll find the Roaring Camp & Big Trees Narrow-Gauge Railroad, a private year-round steam-powered passenger railroad that travels through the redwoods.

The trip starts at the station where the Dixiana Shay Locomotive hooks up to a small train of open (and one closed) cars.

Leaving station

The train right-of-way is all on private land; basically a hill (Bear Mountain). Going up the engine huffs and puffs past and through large redwood stands; a few of which angle overhead.

The Welch Big Trees grove was the first stand of coastal redwoods preserved; back in 1867.

When the tracks were originally put down they built a helical trestle for the train to get up the steepest part of the hill. Unfortunately, the trestle burned in an act of arson some time back. It has been replaced with a switchback series where the train goes up a section, backs up another section, and then continues up the hill. The remains of the original trestle can be seen along the route.

Trestle

Cathedral Grove

At the top the train stops for awhile at Cathedral Grove. There are picnic grounds there and passengers can detrain, hike around the area, and take a later train back to the station.

Train on bridge

On the way back the train covers much of the same route. At the bottom of the hill it goes a different route to pull into the station engine first. In the process the engine pulls up next to a pond and dumps steam as a way of cleaning the boilers. The railroad jokes that they have the cleanest ducks in the area.

Steam release

Finally, just before pulling into the station the train passes by the holding areas for train cars and a lumber mill using original equipment that is being restored.

Lumber mill

There is a second railroad in the area that travels between Felton and the Santa Cruz boardwalk. Unfortunately, when I was there the rains of the previous spring had washed out part of the track and it had not quite been repaired.

And, no visit to this part of California can be complete without at least spending a day in San Francisco...

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